Chord
Progressions

Chord progressions are the basis of playing guitar. They set a basic foundation
of rhythm. The first thing you must do is find a key which you would like to
work in. Let's take the key of C for example. The notes in the C Major Scale
are C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Now take the degrees of these notes and write them out.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

Important: Certain Degrees are minor and certain degrees
are major.

How we get the chords for a certain key:

Take the major scale of a certain key (example: C major scale for the key
of C -- shown above)

Look at the Chords for the I degree, Now form those chords from the I note,
which is C

You get C Major and C Major 7 notice that the notes of these chords are
in the C major scale

You can use other chords but the ones I will show are the basic ones. I
did this to simplify things

Now notice that the II degree uses Minor and Minor 7 chords. But this time,
instead of using C we use D to start the chord because it is the II degree
of the major scale. So we can use D Minor, and D Minor 7 with the key of C.
(Remember to go to the D Major Scale to find the D Minor and D Minor 7 chords).

You can continue down the chart to find all of the chords.

You might want to write them down too.

I

Major

Ionian (Major Scale)

Major, Major 7

II

Minor

Dorian

Minor, Minor 7

III

Minor

Phrygian

Minor, Minor 7

IV

Major

Lydian

Major, Major 7

V

Major

Mixolydian

Major, Dominant 7, Dominant 9

VI

Minor

Aeolian (Natural Minor Scale)

Minor, Minor 7

VII

Minor

Locrian

Diminished, Minor 7b5

Using these Chords:
There are some standard Chord Progressions. Such as a Blues Progression -->
I - IV - V
Try playing C major, F major, then G major chord together.
Now try playing a I - III - IV - V progression using
C major, E minor, Fmajor, G major.
Notice that the III was an E minor chord because the
III degree is minor.
Try making up your own progressions. Have fun with it. butRemember: I, IV, V are Major and II, III, VI, VII
are Minor

These all sound good because they're in the same key. They're in the same key
(C) because all of the chords that you went down the list with earlier use the
same 7 notes which are the notes of the C major scale.

Here is a chart that shows the chords that can be used to represent
each degree and still use only scale tones.